New Year’s resolutions for traders

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8.5

Gary B. Yeager

The New Year brings 12 new months in which we can try to improve ourselves any way we can. This goes for everything going on in our lives: love, family, work, and (of course) trading. Here are my New Year’s resolutions for 2016 when it comes to trading. Hopefully you can learn something from them.

Trade more cautiously

2015 was a great year, but also a year in which great losses were sometimes made. Most of these losses I’ve traced back to 1 single mistake I’ve made over and over again: trading recklessly. Usually in a winning streak, but sometimes after a couple of losses when trying to win some back, I wanted too much. Lesson learned.

Dare to act on a hunch

Have you ever had a moment where a signal provider said to go one way, but you just knew you had to go the other way? Most of the times, I went with my own gut and won. So that’s a good tip for myself, and maybe for you: dare to act on a hunch.

Stop when you need to stop

I cannot stress this enough. The biggest losses occur after long hours of trading. That’s when you lose focus, when your inner voice doesn’t guide you as well as it did when you started. And it’s not only those times you need to pause for an hour or maybe a day or a week. It’s also at those moments when you’re at a loss that you can’t recover from. Don’t try to chase it.

Never overestimate yourself – but never underestimate yourself either

It’s in the trading room where I’ve discovered who I really am. Trading can be extremely confronting at times. Just be true to yourself. Don’t get too ballsy, but don’t be too shy either. Dare to step up when you need to, and dare to take it down a notch when you have to.

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